help w/ smoking fish

[tonguesandwich]

I recently have come into quite a bit of king salmon and want to cure and smoke a portion of it. I've done it before following these basic steps:

- cure fish for 24 hours in slurry of 1/1 sugar/salt w/ a shot of gin, lemon peel & black pepper.

- rinse cure off of fish

- hot smoke fish for a few hours using alder, apple or hickory.

the fish has a great smoke taste and keeps really well, but it's quite salty. Great in dishes or on a bagel w/ cream cheese, but solo, it could use some fine tuning to bring the salt levels down.

I'm thinking that the hot smoking process is driving out moister, therefore concentrating the salt... not too sure if that science is right.. but it definitely tastes saltier after being smoked.

anyone have tips on how to cut the saltiness?

[chefdg]

Try cold smoking.

[aidensnd2]

I never smoke fish anymore, it was always clogging the bong.

Sorry, couldn't resist...

[Anna N]

Not sure what you are aiming for and I claim no expertise here but last night I hot-smoked some salmon over apple chips on the stove-top and it was truly delicious and not at all salty but my method called for a max of 3 hours in the brine.

[sabg]

Not sure what you are aiming for and I claim no expertise here but last night I hot-smoked some salmon over apple chips on the stove-top and it was truly delicious and not at all salty but my method called for a max of 3 hours in the brine.

can i get a little info on this? how did you do it on the stove top?

[Anna N]

Not sure what you are aiming for and I claim no expertise here but last night I hot-smoked some salmon over apple chips on the stove-top and it was truly delicious and not at all salty but my method called for a max of 3 hours in the brine.

can i get a little info on this? how did you do it on the stove top?

I do have a stove top smoker but decided not to use it and instead I followed Sally Schneider's method (from A New Way to Cook):

In brief:

Line a 10 or 11 inch cast iron skillet with foil leaving a 1 1/2" hole in the centre of the foil for the wood chips. Fashion a rack from a round cake cooling rack and make sure it sits approx 1 inch from the bottom of the skillet (use balls of scrunched up aluminum foil to elevate if necessary). Have ready a foil-lined lid for the pan and a weight to hold it down. (The foil is strictly to reduce clean up as the soot can make a right mess!). When ready to smoke, wipe the brine from the fish, lightly brush the fish with oil and arrange on rack. Heat the pan over high heat for approx 5 mins, add 1 1/2 tsps of wood chips to the bare centre, when the wood chips start to smoke, put the rack in the pan, lower the heat, cover the pan and weight it down, keep the heat such that only a thin veil of smoke escapes. For 1 1/4 inch thick pieces of salmon cook for approx 12-15 mins or until a two-tine fork meets no resistance.

I found this much less troublesome than the massive stove-top smoker I have with far less smoke in the kitchen and a much easier clean up. Hope this helps.

[DaleJ]

I have smoked salmon for several years using this process. I have a ratty old fry pan that I use only for this purpose. Place about a tablespoon of wood chips in the botton of the pan, place a wire rack on top and set over high heat. I line a domed lid with foil and place it on the pan. After about five minutes I remove the lid and set about 3/4 pound of salmon filet, skin side down. Turn the heat to medium and turn on the extractor fan. In about ten minutes turn off the heat and move the pan to an idle burner. I leave the lid on for another ten or so minutes. Presto.

[reesek]

what kind of wood do you use? is it shaved, or chipped? i have a stovetop smoker and have yet to achieve satisfactory results. i tried to smoke a half salmon that i had let marinate for an hour or so in brown sugar, fresh dill, lemon zest and salt. i think i wiped the brine off before smoking, but i'm not positive

the chips i used came with my smoker (bad idea? do chips get "stale"?) i then bought more chips - alder i think (very big here) would hickory from the grocery meant for grilling work? are those too big?

i ended up with a product that was way too wet - i dried it in a low oven for an hour which helped, but also kind of acrid - did i oversmoke? i think i smoked the half salmon (a small one - maybe 4lb for the half) for about 20 minutes. it was cooked through, but not overly - and after an hour in the oven was edible, but not very tasty...still a little bitter.

what did i do wrong?

[Anna N]

what kind of wood do you use? is it shaved, or chipped? i have a stovetop smoker and have yet to achieve satisfactory results. i tried to smoke a half salmon that i had let marinate for an hour or so in brown sugar, fresh dill, lemon zest and salt. i think i wiped the brine off before smoking, but i'm not positive

the chips i used came with my smoker (bad idea? do chips get "stale"?) i then bought more chips - alder i think (very big here) would hickory from the grocery meant for grilling work? are those too big?

i ended up with a product that was way too wet - i dried it in a low oven for an hour which helped, but also kind of acrid - did i oversmoke? i think i smoked the half salmon (a small one - maybe 4lb for the half) for about 20 minutes. it was cooked through, but not overly - and after an hour in the oven was edible, but not very tasty...still a little bitter.

what did i do wrong?

I don't really know the answer but I do know that the first pork tenderloin I did in the stove-top smoker was just horribly bitter - I was so, so disappointed. I fully intend to try again using the set-up I have mentioned above. The only thing I think might be a factor is that the chips that came with the smoker are very, very fine and I suspect they burn almost as soon as they smoke and hence make an acrid, horrible smoke but the ones I used recently, while still fine, are a just a little coarser and that might make all the difference. The other thing is the amount called for. Schneider calls for a very little whereas the smoker recipe book, as I recall, suggested quite a lot more.

[budrichard]

I recently have come into quite a bit of king salmon and want to cure and smoke a portion of it. I've done it before following these basic steps:

- cure fish for 24 hours in slurry of 1/1 sugar/salt w/ a shot of gin, lemon peel & black pepper.

- rinse cure off of fish

- hot smoke fish for a few hours using alder, apple or hickory.

the fish has a great smoke taste and keeps really well, but it's quite salty. Great in dishes or on a bagel w/ cream cheese, but solo, it could use some fine tuning to bring the salt levels down.

I'm thinking that the hot smoking process is driving out moister, therefore concentrating the salt... not too sure if that science is right.. but it definitely tastes saltier after being smoked.

anyone have tips on how to cut the saltiness?

You are confusing two different techniques, hot and cold smoking. Cold smoking calls for a brine to cure the fish because you are not raising the temperature to kill bacteria. Hot smoking needs no curing, hence the brining can be dispensed with but a little soak in a weak salt solution will help.-Dick

[reesek]

Anna,

that's really helpful. i bet i'm suffering from both of those problems - too much wood and in bits that are too fine. i'll try bigger pieces and see if that helps. can anyone help me understand why it would be so (overly) wet?

i'm also wondering about hot smoking and infusing sweetness - what's the best way? i found that marinating the salmon helped a bit, but there was no real permeation of sweetness into the salmon. i'm not going for a sugary crust - just an accentuation of the natural sweetness of the fish. will using better/bigger wood lend a mellower, sweeter flavor?

thanks!

rk

[Anna N]

Anna,

that's really helpful. i bet i'm suffering from both of those problems - too much wood and in bits that are too fine. i'll try bigger pieces and see if that helps. can anyone help me understand why it would be so (overly) wet?

i'm also wondering about hot smoking and infusing sweetness - what's the best way? i found that marinating the salmon helped a bit, but there was no real permeation of sweetness into the salmon. i'm not going for a sugary crust - just an accentuation of the natural sweetness of the fish. will using better/bigger wood lend a mellower, sweeter flavor?

thanks!

rk

We used applewood and it certainly had a nice level of sweetness - I am not so sure that alder or hickory is the wood of choice for some sweetness. Maybe one of our smoking experts will chime in here and comment on the wood.

As for the "wetness", I am not sure that what you are aiming for is something other than what can be accomplished by this method. Ours turned out wonderfully moist but I am assuming that moistness is not what you want. We were very satisfied as salmon can become dry and horrid if only a bit overcooked.

I wish I had a better way of describing the size of the wood chips - they are much, much smaller than what I have seen being sold for use in an outdoor BBQ wood box. Ours are closer to shavings than chips in my opinion.

Edited to add:

I believe I used just 1 1/2 tablespoons of the wood and the brine included (I think!) brown sugar, kosher salt and pepper - will confirm when my daughter returns my book tomorrow!

Edited June 1, 2004 by Anna N (log)

[reesek]

thanks anna -

small shavings - so like hamster/rodent cage lining? sorry for the very un-appetizing description - but it's kind of universal. i'll see if i can find apple wood.

edited to add - moist is great - dry is bad, but soggy is not what i was after. maybe it was the fish - i got it at the public market on the water but if it had been frozen...it might make a difference.

Edited June 1, 2004 by reesek (log)

[Anna N]

thanks anna -

small shavings - so like hamster/rodent cage lining? sorry for the very un-appetizing description - but it's kind of universal. i'll see if i can find apple wood.

edited to add - moist is great - dry is bad, but soggy is not what i was after. maybe it was the fish - i got it at the public market on the water but if it had been frozen...it might make a difference.

No, not like hamster shavings - I've chosen the wrong word again - How about coarse pipe tobacco? Damn! I wish the camera had not come to such an ignoble end!

I don't think frozen can be the problem unless it was poorly frozen - mine was frozen (Cosco - frozen salmon portions!).

Edited again to add the ingredients for "brine":

2 1/2 teaspoons sugar or light-brown sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt

1 1/4 teaspoons of freshly ground black pepper

Combine and rub over fish and cover with plastic wrap - cure for one hour at room temp or no more than 3 hours in fridge - don't leave out of fridge for more than one hour.

This is enough for 4 6oz steaks at least 1 1/4 inches thick or 1 1/2lb fillet

Should be just 1 1/4 TEASPOONS! of wood chips.

(All taken from Sally Schneider's A New Way to Cook.) She also suggests:

instead of the wood chips - a chunk of fruitwood 1inch by 1/4 inch or 2 2-inch grape vines OR a dried ancho chile from which you have removed the stem and seeds and have broken into 4 pieces (would love to try this but no source of ancho chiles yet!)

Edited June 2, 2004 by Anna N (log)

[Anna N]

Here you go:

http://images.egullet.com/u6903/i7764.jpg]Apple "chips"

That's a Canadian cent - same size (more or less) as a US cent.